A Soul For Atonement (The Soulbearer Series Book 4)

by Crista McHugh

  A goddess glowing silver in the starlight, her golden hair billowing behind her as she cast her vengeance on the creature.

  A screeching bleat was the last thing he heard before the darkness claimed him.

  ***

  Fury consumed Arden, beating through her with ever-increasing intensity while Loku laughed. Magic pounded inside her chest with every angry breath she drew. She knew Loku wanted to play games, but she refused to let Callix die for his amusement.

  “Enough!”

  She released her magic with the word, driving back the swirling fog with a burst of light. Her skin shimmered as the spell cascading down her arms formed a bolt which pierced the creature’s heart. A high-pitched wail rose from it seconds before she reduced it to ashes. Then the wind carried its remains away.

  “No!” an outraged voice said behind her.

  She turned to find a ghostly projection of Loku running toward Callix.

  A second spell whipped off her lips, and a set of golden chains burst through the earth and coiled around him. He tripped and fell flat on his face with a slew of curses.

  But there was something more important than putting Loku in his place.

  The man whose life hung in the very balance.

  She knelt by Callix’s side and tried to decide which injury to heal first.

  “Don’t,” Loku growled. “You’ll ruin everything.”

  Callix coughed, and that was all the sign she needed. She cast a protective shield around them and focused her magic on healing his wounds.

  Loku inched toward her. “No, he needs to die.”

  “Why?” She asked, not looking up from the two oozing holes in his chest. It was the Temple of the Gods all over again. They needed more magic than she could spare. But if she lowered her shields or freed Loku to gain the power she needed, would the chaos god allow her to finish?

  “Because I need a body to inhabit until I can reclaim my own, and he’s always known his fate. Why else do you think I allowed you to enter my realm without my ashes?”

  A new wave of anger rushed through her. “When I’m done, I’m confining you with every spell imaginable.”

  “Do you really think you can stop me?” He laughed and shook off the chains that had bound him. “Come now, my little Soulbearer, you’re in my realm now.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that you’re bound to me.” She diverted her energy from the confinement spells to the wounds and finally saw them closing up.

  “For now.” Loku passed through her shields as though they were nothing more than air and crouched on the opposite side of Callix. “You should really save your energy, Arden. I’m just going to rip his soul from his body to make room for my own.”

  She snapped her head up and glared at him. Once again, she’d been foolish enough to trust him, but this would be the last time she fell for his lies. “You are the most despicable creature in all the realms.”

  He laughed again and flashed a charming smile. “Give me a few centuries, and you may think otherwise.”

  “I’m not even going to give you a chance.” She doubled her efforts to heal Callix. The blood flowed back into his body, and the skin was almost stitched closed when a bolt of green lightning struck her.

  Smoke rose from her skin and hair, and her heart stopped beating for what seemed like an eternity. When it restarted, she was left helpless on the ground, staring up into a pair of glowing green eyes.

  “One of these days, you’ll learn it’s better to submit than fight me, my little Soulbearer.”

  ***

  Callix had no idea of how much time had passed, but he heard a man and a woman talking before he saw them. The woman’s voice he recognized in an instant. Arden. She was fighting to save him.

  Humility stung his eyes and his pride. He’d come here to protect her, and now the tables were turned. If he’d only listened to her, perhaps he could’ve avoided this fate.

  Sensation returned to his limbs, raw and hot and throbbing. But every beat of his heart reminded him he was still alive.

  The man’s voice faded in and out, but the gist of the conversation was clear. The man wanted him dead, and Arden was doing her best to stop him.

  A yelp forced him to snap open his eyes.

  A man stood on one side of him, his body nearly transparent, but his features sharp enough for Callix to recognize him.

  Loku.

  The god of chaos turned to him and grinned. “Awake? That’s too bad. I was hoping to make this as painless as possible.”

  A bolt of green lightning shot out from Loku’s fingers and hit the center of Callix’s chest, but nothing happened. No pain. No jolt. Not even a twitch of his muscles.

  Loku’s eyes widened, and he repeated the spell with the same result. “What is wrong with you, mortal? Why isn’t your soul fleeing your body?”

  “I don’t know,” Callix replied with a grunt as he lifted his head. His stomach wounds may have closed, but he still had a set of broken ribs to deal with. “But I do know one thing, Loku.”

  “What is that?”

  “This.” He pressed his finger to Arden’s temple and recited one of the first spells he’d been taught.

  A spell to contain Loku.

  The god of chaos vanished in a puff of smoke, still screaming curses at him.

  Now it was his turn to laugh.

  That is, when it didn’t hurt so much.

  Callix crawled over to where Arden lay with her eyes wide open to the sky. “Still alive?”

  “Barely,” she whispered.

  “I would offer a healing spell or two…”

  “Don’t bother.” She sat up and pressed her hand to her forehead. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.”

  “See what?”

  “His plan.”

  “Don’t feel bad, Arden.” He cradled his ribs and managed to rise to a sitting position. “He had a reputation for trickery long before you became his Soulbearer.”

  “But this is a new low, even for him.”

  An inhuman howl rang through the night, and a warm blanket of magic surrounded them.

  Arden huddled closer to him. “My shields are limited at the moment.”

  “But they are appreciated.” He shimmied back until he could lean against the cream-colored stone wall. “Is this the canyon you spoke of?”

  “I believe so.” She wrapped her cloak around her, fatigue slumping her shoulders. “Callix, he said it was your fate that he would inhabit your body. Do you know what he meant?”

  His breath hitched, and he wished he could only blame it on his broken ribs. “Do you really want to know the truth?”

  “If we’re going to have any chance of outwitting him, we need to be honest with each other.”

  He’d forgotten that almost a century had passed since the day his fate changed, and yet the memory of his elation was as fresh as though it was yesterday. Only now, it was tinged with shame. “What do you know of the prior Soulbearers?”

  “I know they were all members of your family until Dev became the Protector, and since then Loku has done all he can to make sure Dev has never fulfilled his role in becoming the next Soulbearer.”

  Callix smiled in spite of himself. Poor Dev. Always the Protector, never the Soulbearer. But then, maybe it was some sort of special blessing from Lady Luck that he’d never had the chaos god’s soul inside him. “And do you know the story of how Dev became the Soulbearer’s Protector?”

  She nodded. “His friend died in an accident, but he felt so guilty about it, he asked to be punished.”

  His voice cracked as he asked, “And did he ever tell you whose place he took?”

  “No.”

  Of course not. For all his faults, Dev was still a knight at heart. Always honorable. Always loyal. And always abiding by his duty. “When I said I owed Dev a favor, it was because he took my place.”

  Arden gasped, but didn’t pressure him to say more.

  But he wanted to say more. She had to
know why he was here and why Loku had targeted him. “I was supposed to be my uncle’s Protector, but I dreaded what lay in store for me. To watch him succumb to madness, only to experience it for myself. I was on the verge of deserting my duty, the one thing I’d been trained for my entire life. And then, by some small miracle, Dev offered to take my place.”

  He drew in a deep breath, ignoring the protests from his ribs. “I’m here with you right now because I’m indebted to Dev, and if there is any way I can repay him for his sacrifice, I’ll do it.” He paused and added, “Even if it means giving up my own life.”

  Arden remained quiet for several long seconds, and when she finally spoke, it was barely more than a whisper. “Thank you for telling me that.”

  “You’re welcome, Soulbearer.” He tipped his head back and finally knew peace.

  Chapter 14

  Arden jerked awake, unaware of when she’d fallen asleep. She reinforced her shields, then the spell confining Loku.

  “Relax. We’re safe,” Callix groaned beside her.

  A snarl in the darkness answered, and he added, “At least for now.”

  “How long was I out?”

  “Hopefully long enough to recuperate.” He started to stretch, then winced and doubled over.

  “Are you still hurt?”

  “Just some broken ribs.” He rose with a grunt, one arm bracing the injury. “I’ll live.”

  “You’ll be a far more effective Protector if you’re at full strength.” She guided her magic toward the broken ribs and knitted them back together. “Better?”

  “Much.” He stood and offered her a hand. “So it’s through the canyon?”

  She nodded. “And across the plain to the orchard.”

  “Where there’s a tree with silver leaves and a giant ruby shaped like a heart. Sounds simple enough.”

  From the deepest recesses of her consciousness, she felt Loku snicker. Even confined, he was determined to make this as difficult as possible. “I can only hope.”

  Without the color-changing winged horse to carry them through Chaos, the journey of less than an hour stretched into what felt like days. Frustration battled weariness, and more than once, she was tempted to release Loku and ask for the carriage that had made quick work of the journey. She never forgot about how little time she had left to save Dev. By the time they reached the edge of the canyon, her body demanded sleep. Callix made camp without saying much, and when she’d had enough sleep, they continued on.

  Time moved at a different pace in Chaos. The sun and the moon both glowed from different quadrants of the sky, and she had no idea of what was day and what was night. She ate when her stomach rumbled, rested when her body ached, slept when her eyes could no longer stay open. But with every step she took, she remembered why she was here. And when she felt like giving up, all she needed to do was touch the necklace Dev had given her to renew her sense of urgency.

  Time was running out to save him.

  She had reached one of those low moments during the second day crossing the plain when she spotted a spark of silver from the shadowy mass on the horizon. “The orchard.”

  Callix looked in the direction she pointed. “Maybe a few hours away?”

  “I suppose.” For the first time in days, her heart beat with excitement instead of fear. “But we still need to hurry if we want to make it back to the gate in time to save Dev.” That is, if they weren’t too late already. She squeezed her pendant and wished she could reach Dev from this plane, if only to reassure herself that he was still alive.

  “Agreed.” He picked up the pace to a brisk walk. “Let’s go, Soulbearer. The sooner we find that relic, the sooner we’ll be free of this place.”

  Another muffled snicker came from the far recesses of her consciousness. Loku was still aware of their progress and no doubt had something in store for them when they reached the trees. She wouldn’t put it past him to have led them on a wild goose chase, to have moved the Blood of Lireal to a different location.

  “Is it still there?” she asked him, releasing him from his confines enough to allow him to answer.

  “Yes,” he hissed, and her guard went up. He wouldn’t be confirming its location unless he had something else in store for them.

  “That’s all I need to know.” She cast another confinement spell and raced to catch up with Callix.

  They were both breathing hard when they reached the orchard, but that didn’t stop Callix from breaking his stride as he entered the orchard.

  The snapping trees did.

  He cursed and drew his sword, backing away from the snarling branches.

  “Oh, yeah, forgot to warn you.” Arden eased his sword down. “They bite.”

  “Now you tell me.”

  “But there is a trick to taming them.” She dodged the lunging leaves until she came to the trunk. After a few seconds of stroking, the tree calmed and made what sounded like a purring noise.

  “I can’t believe I’m seeing this.” He lowered his sword until the tip of the blade rested in the dirt. “Are we going to have to do that to every tree we pass?”

  “Only the ones you don’t want attacking you.” She waved him forward. “Stay close.”

  It became a game to dodge the attacking branches, but thankfully, years of avoiding pinches while serving customers at the tavern in Wallus worked to her advantage. A slide, a twist, a duck. All part of a choreographed dance that got her safely to the next trunk.

  Callix, however, wasn’t as lucky. He got bopped, swatted, and nipped as he tried to mimic her motions and finally resorted to hacking his way through. “I hate this place,” he muttered after fighting another snarling tree.

  “I told you to stay close.”

  “I’m trying.” He didn’t even bother to look to his left before hacking the tip off a tree branch that was trying to pounce on him. “I think I failed the lesson on tree taming.”

  “There’s nothing tame about anything in Chaos.” She rubbed another trunk until the branches sagged like Cinder did when she scratched behind his ears. “We’re just appeasing them long enough to get by.”

  “And speaking of appeasing, I have a feeling Loku won’t be letting us leave with the relic without throwing something at us.”

  “I suspect you’re right.” Arden sidestepped her way to the next trunk. “I’ve confined him with every spell I can, but we’re still in his territory.”

  “So you’re expecting him to pull a few more dirty tricks before we’re out of here.”

  The earlier snicker replayed in her mind. “Unfortunately, yes.”

  “Good to know,” Callix replied with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

  It was much slower getting to the center of the orchard than before, but then, she didn’t have the ruler of the realm at her side to order submission from the trees. Just when she was beginning to wonder if they were going in circles, she saw a flash of silver. Her pulse quickened as she rushed toward it. “It’s this tree.”

  Callix came up behind her and peered into the dense foliage. “Are you certain it’s this one?”

  “Do you see any other trees like it?”

  “No.” A brief moment of awe flickered across his face. “If it wasn’t trying to bite my head off, I might consider it beautiful.”

  “Just keep stroking the trunk like this.” She guided his hand to the trunk and demonstrated once more on the now-docile tree. “Now, if you have that under control, I’m going to retrieve that relic.”

  Another small blessing from her days in Wallus was that she learned to climb trees with speed and ease. When Hal was angry at her for accidentally setting fire to something, a tall tree provided a great hiding place until he calmed down.

  Her muscles responded to the memory with little direction from her. She jumped up to grab a branch and swing her body onto it. A few branches later, she was standing in the heart of the tree.

  Hundreds of ruby red apples lay among the silver-tipped leaves, all trying to conceal the Blood of Lirea
l. She inspected each one before moving up to the next level. About halfway up, the tree pitched to the side and threw her off balance. She crashed into one branch before grabbing another. The rough bark cut into her palms, and her heart fluttered in her chest like a swarm of frightened birds.

  “Sorry,” Callix called from below. “I rubbed it the wrong way.”

  She muttered a few curses under her breath and climbed back to where she was before.

  It wasn’t until she reached the frail branches at top that she found the relic. She grabbed it and held it in her hands, admiring the warm fire that seemed to glow from inside. It was heavier than she imagined, and she took care to secure it before hopping from branch to branch on the way down. “Got it.”

  “Are you certain it’s not a decoy?” Callix took it and peered into the facet of the stone, turning it from side to side. A stream of magic flowed from his fingers, only to earn a zap from the relic. He yelped and tossed it back to her. “Yep, it’s the real thing.”

  “Then let’s go.” She paused long enough to gather a few apples for the journey back before giving the center tree one final rub and moving to calm the next one.

  Only this time, the tree refused to be tamed.

  The branches tangled together above their heads, blocking out all light. A low growl echoed through the orchard, and in every direction they turned, a tree moved up to fill the gap. Callix drew his sword and cast an illumination spell, but it only confirmed what she’d feared.

  They were trapped.

  Laughter shook the remote corner of her mind where she’d confined him.

  “This isn’t funny, Loku.”

  But the laughter continued until she finally released him. The ghostly image of the god of chaos passed through the wall of trees into the small space where she stood with Callix. “It’s not fun being confined, is it, my little Soulbearer?”

  “Ha ha,” she replied without an ounce of humor. “Point made. Now let us go.”

  “And spoil all my fun?” He circled them, his bright yellow-green eyes never leaving her, despite Callix’s efforts to shield her from the chaos god. “I played along. You found what you were looking for. But you never thought past that point, did you?”